Disgrace by J. M. Coetzee

Set in post-Apartheid South Africa, the novel begins with the downfall of David Lurie, a man in his fifties and a professor of Communications. Willingly submitting to scandal, he resigns his position at a university in Cape Town, leaving the city for the country farm run by his daughter, Lucy, in Eastern Cape. While looking to patch his strained relationship with her, he also tries to find meaning in his sudden disgrace. That includes volunteering at an animal clinic where giving special care to the dogs he helps euthanize provides him comfort; it includes facing himself and his daughter's life and her maturation. Everything changes, however, when the reality of the new South Africa crashes upon them in an incident of horrible violence.

What I like most about this novel is the vividness of post-Apartheid South Africa. It is a place where Africans run rampant in bouts of pillaging and bloodshed. Nothing and no one is safe here, especially in the country moreso than the city. There is little the law can do; even for the most armed and vigilant of whites, becoming a victim of this brutality is only a matter of time. I did not realize that this is the face of South Africa today: Africans thirsty for revenge for years of racial prejudice, and the only refuge for their targets is to flee or be subjugated to unwanted peace proposals like that offered to Lucy. This is an intriguing moral complexity between David and Lucy. Both have different approaches in handling the violence that threatens and strikes them both.

I also like Coetzee's prose. His writing is simple, his sentences short. I liken it to Hemingway, although I don't know how the comparison would hold against literary analysis. Unlike Ernest, however, Coetzee's prose has more cadence and melody, is more poetic, while still easy to read. This, and it's replete with meaning and interpretation.

An example of that depth is the change in David. He insists he is too old, too close to the ends of his life, for him to learn any lessons, but he does. He becomes more understanding, more compassionate, and more of the father to Lucy he should. I liked witnessing that change, as at first I thought David to be despicable, but later more likable.

This is the second book I've read from the Nobel Prize winning J. M. Coetzee. This was a thoughtful, splendid read. Coetzee has become a favorite writer of mine.